The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD’s) veterinary department has picked up the first batch of ten dogs which were considered aggressive and relocated them to a dog shelter in South West Delhi’s Najafgarh, said senior municipal officials on Saturday.
A MCD official said that the relocated dogs will now remain in the shelter for life or until their behaviour improves during the observation period. (Hindustan Times)
According to civic officials, the dogs have been relocated to shelters in compliance with the Supreme Court order and they will not be released back to the premises from where they were picked up.
A MCD official said that the relocated dogs will now remain in the shelter for life or until their behaviour improves during the observation period. “These dogs were picked up from hospitals and residential areas in Najafgarh following repeated complaints from citizens. The dogs have been sent to a shelter run by a nearby NGO as permanent shelters will take much longer time to develop,” official added.
A second official aware of the matter said that the dog catching teams are facing opposition from activists during the field operations. “Since we do not have our own shelters as of now, we are not able to carry out this campaign at a faster rate. The drive will be more organised when permanent shelters are ready. There were complaints from Najafgarh about stray dogs attacking people in hospitals and residential areas, after which we picked up ten stray dogs from South West Delhi areas,” official said.
The corporation is working on a plan to build shelter homes for stray dogs in two locations. The first shelter home, with an estimated cost of ₹3.5 crore, is to be built in Dwarka Sector 29.“Administrative approval has been granted and it is expected to take six months to complete. The shelter will have the capacity to house 1500 dogs,” an official said, adding that the second shelter home will come up at Bela Road.
To be sure, until now, MCD could only temporarily hold the dogs in the 20 ABC centres where they were vaccinated, sterilised and released back as per the Animal Welfare Board of India regulations.
On November 7, terming the rise in dog-bite incidents as a “matter of human safety concern”, the Supreme Court directed all states and Union territories to ensure the removal of stray dogs from educational institutions, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots, and railway stations, holding that such dogs cannot be released back into the same premises after sterilisation.
The Supreme Court order has been criticised by the animal rights activists and welfare associations which have also organised a series of protests in the national capital. They have demanded that a more humane approach should be taken and the Animal Birth Control program and handling of food waste should be improved.